QUEBEC — In 2010, Yvon Lamontagne was a video-store owner in Val d’Or, Que., and a central player in the criminal gang that controlled drug distribution in northwestern Quebec.

Michel Girouard was Lamontagne’s lawyer and, depending on which version presented at an inquiry this week you believe, a frequent consumer of either Lamontagne’s videos or his drugs.

On Wednesday, a Canadian Judicial Council inquiry committee heard four wiretapped conversations between Lamontagne and Girouard, intercepted by police when they targeted Lamontagne as part of a major 2010 drug investigation.

Girouard, who was appointed to Quebec Superior Court on Sept. 30, 2010, faces possible removal from the bench on five counts involving his alleged purchase and use of cocaine during his time as a lawyer.

On the surface, the recordings played in court Wednesday contained innocuous conversations between two men on friendly terms.

In all four calls recorded between February and April 2010, Girouard asked about picking up videos. There was small talk, and Girouard would identify himself to Lamontagne using the nickname Miguel. Once, the films were for a trip to a cabin with his son, Girouard said. Another time, he said he was going to bring back two children’s films Lamontagne had loaned him and collect two others. A third time he was looking for something good that had just come out. “I’ll have to have a look,” Lamontagne told him. “There’s not much good this week.”

Girouard’s lawyers argued that the calls were private conversations that have nothing to do with the allegations against the judge. Another 10 calls that police intercepted between the two were excluded as evidence because they were covered by solicitor-client privilege.

“What is the relevance?” lawyer Gérald R. Tremblay asked of the film-rental chatter. “This is deplorable.”

Independent counsel Marie Cossette said that all the talk of videos was actually code for picking up drugs. She has introduced evidence that police tracked Lamontagne’s pickup truck to one of his gang’s cocaine stashes at a downtown hotel in the minutes after a call from Girouard saying he was going to pass by Lamontagne’s home to pick up videos.

In a written summary of allegations, Cossette wrote that on two of the days police intercepted conversations with Girouard, drug trafficking activities took place at Lamontagne’s video store, “which may suggest that Mr. Girouard knew when Mr. Lamontagne received his supplies.”

The phone calls are intended to support the allegation that a Sept. 17, 2010 meeting between Girouard and Lamontagne, filmed on a security camera in Lamontagne’s office, included a drug deal.

What is the relevance? This is deplorable

Girouard told a judicial council representative in 2013 that money he is seen placing under Lamontagne’s desk blotter during the meeting was to pay for films he had bought, “the nature of which he preferred be kept out of his customer file.” A post-it note Lamontagne handed him contained legal instructions, he said, in addition to a message that he believed he was under surveillance. Cossette has introduced evidence that the post-it note could have concealed a small bag of cocaine.

On Wednesday, the committee heard a conversation between Lamontagne and his superior in the criminal gang, recorded in the back of a police cruiser after their Oct. 6, 2010 arrests on charges of trafficking and gangsterism. (Lamontagne pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison.)

Cossette said the conversation shows Lamontagne was taken by surprise to learn he had been under surveillance for nearly a year, calling into question Girouard’s account of what was on the post-it.

Similarly, Cossette said, “something else was going on” when Girouard called Lamontagne to check on new releases. “I do not believe his version,” she said, prompting Tremblay to leap to his feet and object that she had seriously breached her role as “a so-called independent counsel.”

Manitoba Chief Justice Richard Chartier, who is chairman of the three-member inquiry committee, assured Cossette that he had full confidence in her. “Your conduct is very honourable,” he said. Whether the same can be said for Girouard could hinge on his contention that he is just a misunderstood film buff.

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